UVA Football Notebook: The QB situation, early rankings

AFP

2 years ago

First, to the obvious: no way Kurt Benkert leaves ECU for UVA if there isn’t something going on with Matt Johns.

You think that at first glance upon hearing that Benkert, the one-time anointed starting QB at East Carolina, is enrolling this summer at the University of Virginia as a grad student, with two years of football eligibility remaining.

OK, sure, Connor Brewer also enrolled at UVA as a grad student, last summer, with two years of eligibility remaining, ostensibly to challenge Johns for the starting job, after Greyson Lambert transferred out to start over at Georgia, using the same grad transfer rule, and it didn’t work out so well for Brewer.

Maybe Benkert, who is familiar to UVA assistant Ruffin McNeill, the former head coach at ECU, is coming in thinking that he can at the least battle for the job, and if he doesn’t get the ball in 2016, then he’s there ready to take over for one year in 2017.

But based on what we were hearing coming out of spring practice, the QB race between Johns and Brewer was anything but settled, so it could be the case that Benkert gets a fair shot at 2016, assuming he can get enough early reps to state his case.

Early projections: Not looking good

The ESPN Power Index has the Cavs ranked 66th nationally heading into the preseason, with a projected record of 4.5-7.5.